As primaries near, Newport Beach residents debate if they should elect mayor directly
Debate in Newport Beach is heating up among voters as the June primary election nears and the decision of whether or not to choose their mayor hangs in the balance.
Under the current system, residents elect members from seven districts to the City Council. At the end of each calendar year, the sitting members then vote among themselves to seat the mayor and the mayor pro tem for a rotating, one-year term.
If approved by voters, Measure B will amend the city charter to allow the direct election of mayor in Newport Beach.
Measure B, also known as the “Elect Our Mayor” initiative, was launched by Councilman Will O’Neill in September 2021. Council members moved to put the measure on the ballot in October, foregoing the traditional signature collection process.
Opponents argue their issue with the measure doesn’t have to do with electing their mayor outright but is more centered on the details included in the measure’s text: term limits, agenda control and the minimum requirements of residency to run for the position.
Fears of undue influence
Resident Susan Skinner said she is concerned about all of the above but her biggest worry has to do with the council agendas.
She and other measure opponents say the current balance of power would be shifted because an elected mayor would have discretion to set the City Council’s agenda and change the order of business.
Three council members in consensus could also add an item to the agenda, which would be developed by the city manager in coordination with the mayor and council.
City spokesman John Pope said the city attorney doesn’t view this as a significant shift from the way agendas are developed now.
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This mirrors practices in neighboring Costa Mesa, where direct election of the mayor has taken place since 2018.
Still, some residents fear this stipulation will remove the city manager’s ability to add items to the agenda as needed. Skinner said it would “changes the relationship of the city manager and the mayor from a working partnership to a subservient relationship.”
“[City managers] usually add routine business matters, but this would require the mayor to add those items. That opens the door wide open for undue influence. Imagine an unethical mayor telling the city manager that they won’t add agenda items that would allow the city to run smoothly unless the city manager does what he wants,” Skinner said.
Skinner further said she worries Measure B would make it difficult to hire another city manager in the long run if and when current City Manager Grace Leung leaves her post or retires.
City spokesman John Pope, in an email, said the city attorney’s reading of the ballot measure “disagrees with the opponent’s summary.”
Residency requirements
Skinner also said she and others opposed to the measure are concerned about the requirements to run for the mayoral position, which calls for a minimum of 30 days of residency in the city’s limits, a period she deems too short.
According to the city’s website, the minimum requirement for running for a City Council seat is also just 30 days.
Former Newport Beach Councilman Jeff Herdman maintains the introduction of the measure was a “power grab” by Team Newport — a 2014 slate of council candidates that included Marshall “Duffy” Duffield, Kevin Muldoon and Diane Dixon and former member Scott Peotter — which Herdman said has largely been running the city for the last eight years.
Herdman alleges Measure B is “an attempt for that group of people to maintain control of our city, promote their own political futures, to do away with term limits, which the voters approved back in 1992, in this city with revisions to our city charter.”
Herdman, along with other opponents of Measure B, has pointed to the donations to the Measure B campaign received from out of town. Some contributions have come from out of state, including Colorado and Florida.
The Daily Pilot attempted to contact several of these contributors but in a number of instances did not receive responses to requests for comment. At least two of the contributing organizations confirmed only that their owners are residents of Newport Beach.
According to campaign disclosure agreements, about $5,000 of the donations in support of the ballot measure has come directly from O’Neill. Opponents have pointed to this and O’Neill’s eligibility to run for mayor in 2024 if Measure B is approved as signs for apparent motivation for the ballot measure, arguing that passage would allow O’Neill to remain on the dais if elected.
O’Neill was reelected to his role as a council member in 2020 unopposed and would be terming out of his role by the time of the mayoral election. In a recent interview by phone, O’Neill did not confirm or deny an intention to run for mayor and said it was too far in the future to know.
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About $60,850 has been raised for the “Elect Our Mayor” campaign as of financial documents last filed on April 21. About 69% of all donations came from Newport Beach addresses.
The “No Elected Mayor” campaign has raised around $57,800, according to documents also most recently filed on April 21. Just two addresses listed for the donors to this campaign were from out of town, in nearby Irvine and Costa Mesa.
City Council candidate Tom Miller donated over $25,000 to the “No” camp, arguing that Measure B was a “Trojan horse.”
“On the outside, it looks shiny and beautiful, but as soon as you open up the belly, all war breaks out. This measure was written by one person for one person and, if voted in, will destroy what has worked for our city for 68 years,” Miller said. “If I’m on City Council in 2024, and this measure passes, I will be rendered useless as a council member, and the chance of making improvements to my district as well the rest of our city will be almost impossible under this mayor-elect structure.”
Resident Lynn Swain said if O’Neill were to run he would be a good mayor for four or eight years, but there was no way of knowing who would be running afterwards.
“Someone power hungry, someone with higher ambition, someone without Newport in mind, someone funded by lobbyists. No doubt it will ruin the city,” said Swain in an email to the Daily Pilot. “I say keep the power divided among the council as it has been for decades. It really doesn’t matter which councilman runs the meeting and calls himself mayor that year, does it? I’m just happy the power is split and they hold each other accountable somewhat.”
In a call last week, O’Neill said describing Measure B as a power grab “should be particularly insulting to voters who want to elect their own mayor.” He said under the proposed system any voter in Newport Beach could run for mayor, including those against the measure.
“It really comes down to this: Do you trust the intelligence and integrity of our voters? I do,” said O’Neill.
Parks, beaches and recreation Commissioner Kate Malouf said she supports the measure because it would give her a choice. Malouf, a transplant from the Bay Area, said she’s lived in Newport Beach for almost 15 years and has found the traditional rotation of the mayoral position in Newport Beach to be a “mind-boggler.”
“‘You’ve been here longer; oh, now it’s your turn [to be mayor].’ That’s great, and it’s kind of worked, but ... we need to be able to elect and have that local accountability. By knowing who we’re electing, we made this decision. We didn’t have somebody else in a backroom conversation decide for us,” Malouf said.
Malouf acknowledges she is a friend of O’Neill but is adamant that voting for the mayor would give individuals “skin in the game” for a leader who wouldn’t end up being a “one-year wonder.”
The primary will be held June 7, and the first ballots will be mailed by May 9. If approved by voters, Measure B would go into effect in November 2024 and would not impact the ballot for this year’s City Council elections in November.
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